


Lady Liln and King Olvin

by NotoriousReign



Series: Narnia: Untold Stories [2]
Category: Chronicles of Narnia - All Media Types, Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-12
Updated: 2017-01-12
Packaged: 2018-09-16 22:49:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 8,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9292955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NotoriousReign/pseuds/NotoriousReign
Summary: King Olvin has two predicaments. A Giant terrorizing his beloved Archenland and the prospect of marriage while his heart belongs to a woman from another century. Leave it to the Great Lion Aslan to help bend the tides of time.





	1. A King's Belief

**Author's Note:**

> In this we find out how Lilia comes back, becomes Lady Liln, and how King Olvin wins her hand in marriage. Fun fluffy stuff that I enjoyed writing. Again, since we technically don't know anything about these characters in CS Lewis's timeline I treated it more like an Arthurian legend and had my own characterizations. 
> 
> So enjoy!

* * *

Archenland was facing dire circumstances. In the year 407 there were two situations in particular that needed attention.

The first and least important, although plenty of royals would say otherwise, was the marriage of the current King Olvin, a fair-haired modest man. He was young to some, 36 years old, but every proposed lady for him was denied. He never found himself attached to them. It wasn’t a lack of attraction, but after first meeting with a dryad or naiad he found he had forgotten about her and carried on with his castle life.

This was an issue because since the start of his rule, lords questioned his choices. He did not descend from King Frank the way the first King of Archenland did and while he never plunged the country into war or caused any harm and famine to his people, he was never truly seen as their real King and Son of Adam.

If he could find himself a wife things would be much easier and peaceful amongst the royalty, but another woman held his heart. A woman from the past that he could never so much as meet, let alone marry. She had wild raven hair and green eyes in the paintings and only belonged to history.

The second situation was the madness of the Giant Pire. He roamed the mountains with his two heads and killed anybody he could find. Not out of any development for himself, but out of spite. He walked back and forth, hiding in a canyon near the Great Desert and for a time nobody would dare to pass through. It was beginning to anger diplomats of the Tisroc in Calormen and assumed that they were just being ignored.

Archenlanders were not known for hostility and rudeness, least of all the ruling family. It was a great affront to be so rightfully afraid of a Giant that passing through the Desert was impossible.

Queen Iliana of Narnia came down to discuss a peace talk with King Olvin. She brought her small five-year-old daughter Princess Fiona, although the original message of the visit did not reveal Fiona’s age and Olvin had prepared for another marriage proposal.

In the wide red-brown stone throne room of Castle Anvard, Olvin was relieved when Iliana’s procession arrived and a small child with curly light brown hair popped her head around her mother’s legs.

“What options have you carried out thus far, King Olvin?” Queen Iliana asked, hours later, as they sat next to each other at the grand table of a room dedicated to business and war strategy. It wasn’t used often, but for tonight they had small glasses of wine with water mixed in (for Archenland’s wine was very strong and sweet) and parchments of plans out. Other lords and ladies sat around listening intently, with Olvin at the head, and Princess Fiona sat with a toy next to her mother.

“Talk is out of the question for this beast. I’ve sent thirty of my best men and women to negotiate what exactly Pire wants over the last five years, but they’ve all turned up…” At this Olvin glanced at the suddenly watchful eye of the little girl and smiled quickly. “… Turned up not quite the same as they were before I sent them.”

“Then he wants to fight.”

“It seems so.”

Iliana swished the red liquid in her cup and sat up rigidly. “If this persists until the end of the Winter then King Yorick and I will send our best Narnian army to help you defeat this menace.”

“And our woes will finally be forgotten!” Olvin smiled and raised his drink high. “Cheers to our ever-growing alliance and friendship!”

The room filled with lords and ladies clinking glasses and cups and they heartily drank their wine. Not a second after Olvin had placed his down did he immediately hear the next dreaded question from his guest.

“Onto our next concern. When will my dearest friend find himself a wife?”

He caught her hint of a gleeful smile and knew she meant well, so he stifled a smirk and nonchalant air because this was becoming a serious concern for his kingdom.

“Let us plan a day together with your lovely daughter by the ocean and we can discuss such a matter further.”

King Olvin made sure this happened as soon as possible, jumping swiftly at the chance of a long-awaited reprieve. Half a day’s journey to the Eastern Ocean’s beach would give him plenty of time to discuss his feelings. On horseback with her daughter, Olvin riding next to her with his guards always a few paces back, Iliana listened to his concerns about the country, but also about his worries over marriage and continuing the royal Archenland line.

He was and always will be a romantic at heart. He spoke of old histories as if he could live them again, one queen in particular who held his heart.

A satin blanket had been placed over the sand and the guards kept their post scattered in the valley behind them. Olvin sat back with the Queen of Narnia, offered snacks and when Iliana wasn’t watching her daughter run back and forth creating the perfect little structure by the shore, she kept a concerned eye on the King of Archenland as well.

“My dearest King, do not presume that I take any pleasure when I say this… but I think you have put too much stock on your own creation of a fairy tale. Suppose this woman, by the Great Lion Aslan’s hand, could come here and she is not what you imagine? Suppose you end up hating her. That is to say, if such a thing were possible to begin with, and I am afraid to say that it seems most unlikely.”

Olvin chuckled and stared up at the bright blue sky. The sun, warming the sand beneath them, made the calm waves glisten.

“I know I may seem… delusional.”

“That is not what I said. There is nothing wrong with believing in what you believe, but to base it to the same seriousness as marriage is another matter. Dearest King, I imagine there must be _some_ woman out there perfect for you.”

He sighed and decided not to answer again that this woman was in fact out there, he had just missed her by the saddest of circumstances.

“I will marry when the time comes dear Queen.”

“Mama!” Princess Fiona’s shriek pierced through their conversation and the sound of the Great Ocean's waves.

The guards appeared in all of two seconds, brisk with weapons ready. The Queen of Narnia and the King of Archenland stood instantly, but what the whole procession came by was the opposite of what any of them expected.

Fiona stood, bent over a body bigger than hers but not entirely huge like a Giant's. Olvin drew out his sword and held up a hand to the men and women behind him, walking slowly towards it. He gestured to Fiona to stand back and the princess hurriedly ran to her mother.

“Be careful!”

He approached the body and saw that it was a woman passed out with clothes he had never seen before. He put his sword away and the company on the beach farther down relaxed.

“Your Majesty? What is it?”

Olvin didn’t know if he or the little princess had said out loud that it was a girl, but he gently rolled the body onto her side until the woman thankfully coughed into her dark tangle of hair and tried to sit up, but then promptly fell back onto the ground. The King forgot about his misgivings and bent low, helping her sit in the sand.

The woman pushed her hair out of her eyes and coughed once more, squinting at the sudden sunlight.

“She must be a Calormene lady who snuck away from the Giant, but got lost out at sea,” Olvin mused to himself, because in the right angle the woman seemed to have a darker complexion than the Narnians and Archenlanders he knew. There were of course different creatures like the Centaurs and Fauns who didn’t always look like him either, but he knew those types of creatures didn’t live past the Desert, and this woman didn’t feel like she were made from the sea or the trees.

“Where am I?” She slumped back and watched the water rise to her stretched-out feet again. Her legs were covered with some type of long tight cloth that had ripped up in whatever struggle may have happened and she wore no shoes. The coat seemed stifling and she barely acknowledged Olvin pulling it off of her, revealing a thin blue dress. It was different from any of the comfortable clothes they wore in this country, but now he could see it wasn’t from beyond the Desert either.

“This is Archenland.” He answered.

Almost immediately a cloudy confused look passed over her features.

“Archenland?” She said it breathlessly.

“Are you from beyond the Desert, or beyond the Mountains?”

She shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts. Olvin knew she needed help and pulled the lady to her feet. At least she could walk, but she wobbled and he placed an arm around her waist, steadying her, as they made their way together back to the group. Queen Iliana watched curiously with the rest of the guards.

“Get this woman a clean dress and some blankets.” King Olvin ordered. “And drop your weapons, she means no harm.”

The woman was silent with shock at her surroundings. She watched the company flourish and obey the fair-haired man before her and if she seemed sad it was no fault of theirs. Given a bluer and more comfortable dress than the one she had on before and some light food, she sat wrapped in a soft robe of the Queen’s staring out at the ocean.

When the evening started to descend upon them, a curious thing was discovered. Olvin found he could not stop staring at this woman, absolutely enthralled with his luck and faith. She caught him, dark hair dry and tangling in long curls down her back. She pushed some out of her eyes.

“Queen Iliana… send my guards back to the kingdom with your daughter the Princess.”

Iliana now seemed to have seen what Olvin had and paused, staring in wonder at the woman before her. She nodded knowingly but stepped forward.

“Milady… if I could be so inclined to ask for your name…?”

The unknown woman blinked. “Lilia… Lilia Marsden.”

Queen Iliana jumped back, as if stung by a bee. She walked back towards the King and bowed her head low. “I’m sorry I doubted you.”

The group left and Lilia Marsden was alone on the beach with King Olvin of Archenland.

* * *

 


	2. Lady Liln

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally the naming of Lady Liln from Lilia Marsden.

* * *

 

“We will have to change your name, dear Queen. Make no mistake though, you are still a noblewoman here.”

“What year is this?”

Lilia stood watching as the King, who had light hair and eyes the same colour as the ocean, packed his supplies up and left them with the horse. She clung to the robe around her, legs shaking a bit. But already the Narnian air was bringing an old spirit back to her she thought she had forgotten.

“The year 407. Did you come from… that other world beyond?”

Lilia merely nodded and looked down. “It’s been over 100 years? I was only gone for six of them where I’m from.”

Olvin heard such sadness in her tone that he stopped his work and walked up to her. Lilia backed away slightly, surprised, but he chose not to take her fear personally.

“My name is Olvin, I am the King of Archenland. I do not descend from King Col, for King Farin had no heirs. My own father, his trusted advisor, planned a murder against him and tried to stab him in his chambers, but I put a stop to it with my own blade and King Farin named me his heir. I apologize, I know this must be a horrible shock to you, but I also promise I will try my best to make you as comfortable as possible.”

Lilia blinked and quickly started to remember old rules fit for kings and queens and nobles and squires. The Narnian air was familiar and good for her, yet still different from before.

“Am I… known around here? You look like you recognize me.”

“You are in the history books of both Archenland and Narnia and there are paintings of you in the hall of Kings and Queens in Castle Anvard where I reside. The books even mentioned that your accent, pardon my assumption, always sounded different from other Archenlanders, including to your husband and children.”

“Yes well… I could never really get rid of my Canadian voice.”

Olvin chuckled. “Cun-ade-Ian. What a curious name.”

“History says it was from miscommunication. But speaking on that… why do I have to change my name?”

At that the King was solemn. “You are not queen in these parts anymore. It would be hard to explain to the people what has happened.”

“I’m having a tough enough time figuring it out myself.” Lilia curtsied, her best yet for a woman from another world. “Your Majesty.”

Olvin smiled and took her hand, his being warm but not clammy. He helped her onto the horse, not as hard as he thought it would be for her, and they started riding on into the night.

She sat behind the King, her arms firmly around his stomach as he steered through the trees and valleys. They passed a few families and get-togethers, but every Archenlander was already sleeping aside from the Fauns or Owls. For about an hour they spoke only a bit, shy under the cool night sky. The horse was named Dolris and Olvin had been gifted him when he took down his father Osiris.

“Mind you, I never knew King Farin would name me his heir when he gave me Dolris. I thought Dolris was the gift.”

“Why did your father betray the King?”

“He was a greedy man.” Olvin said it nonchalantly. A feeling Lilia oddly understood. “And Farin treated me much kinder than my father did.”

“Did you work for him as well?”

“I was a knight, but after my father was cast off I was kept close as a historian.”

“And that’s how you know so much about me.”

She could have sworn he was blushing. “Let us discuss names.”

It started to rain and they made camp near a hill with a cluster of tall oak trees. The initial shock had subsided and Lilia helped move the blanket over separate branches that shielded them from getting wet. Long seconds passed when Olvin had to stop and watch her carry on, completely engrossed with how quickly she picked up on her old memories as a queen. She caught his look and climbed under the tent, this time being the one to blush.

They ate the leftover rabbit, a dumb beast of course, that he had caught the night before and then slept for only a few hours before they continued the journey onwards to Anvard. Before mounting Dolris they decided on the perfect name and title for her.

Lady Liln.

Over the next couple of hours, listening to the familiar streams and breathing in the sweet air, more Archenland residents emerged to watch them pass into the main city. A group of Red and Black Dwarves whispered in awe before going off to work with the Talking Moles in their digging. A Dryad gasped and flew into the woods to speak with her family. A few older Fauns watched in confusion at first until the recognition started to dawn on them just like it had with the Queen of Narnia. 

Anvard Pass appeared up the slope and Lilia, now Lady Liln, gasped without embarrassment, staring up at her old home, the very castle she had spent 40 long years in. There were more towers built up that looked well cared-for, scattered around the main courtyard. It brought sentimental tears to her eyes when she saw that there was still no moat. Just like before.

It was much livelier with tall cherry trees surrounding the main entrance. Olvin rode Dolris past the vast wooden doors as guards tilted their heads in recognition. They were met with Queen Iliana in a new purple dress, her daughter, and a company of royals. All bowed low when the horse stopped nearby and Olvin hopped off. As he was about to help his companion down she jumped off easily by herself.

She became increasingly aware that everyone was too dumbfounded to speak.

“Royal ambassadors, citizens, and lords of Archenland and Narnia… I present to you Lady Liln, a noblewoman rescued from the waters of the Eastern Ocean.”

Liln, now with an official new name that would take some getting used to, curtsied shyly.

“She looks familiar mama!” Princess Fiona broke the silence, voicing what everybody else was thinking.

Queen Iliana stepped up and curtsied again, a quick polite one before she took Liln’s hand.

“What a lovely name. Did you journey well?”

“Yes, thank you…” She had a feeling she should curtsy and did so. “I have much to learn so excuse me if I forget some formalities.”

“No apologies necessary. I am Queen Iliana of Narnia and that little one over there is my daughter, Princess Fiona. You’ll get along well here. Did King Olvin take good care of you?”

At that some lords and royals glanced amongst each other, raised their eyebrows. Liln quickly cleared her throat and let the Narnian queen lead her into the castle. “Yes. He was an absolute gentleman. I would expect nothing less from the King of Archenland.”

* * *

 


	3. The Kiss In The Tower

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lady Liln is told about the worries in Archenland, and shares a brief surprise with King Olvin.

* * *

Why the nobles had all gaped at her was answered quickly enough. The red-brown stones had been furnished in the vast halls and steeping towers with new draperies embroidered with a red lion on them carried through the quiet castle. This included vast halls with intricate paintings in them. Over the coming years a warm homely feel had come over Anvard, and it was almost unrecognizable to her. But the Hall of Kings and Queens was a different story entirely. It held a solemn essence in its dome-like shape and being the first Queen of Archenland, there were more than enough paintings scattered around that replicated the old Queen Lilia exactly.

Standing next to one in particular, 31-year-old Liln stared up at this 40-year-old woman and knew she could never be able to recreate what she had lived. Watching her age in that room in paint form started to make her uncomfortable, but at least she understood why everybody gawked.

The first Queen of Archenland had come back as young and radiant as she had been when she appeared to Prince Col in the year 180 and became his wife. Liln started to recall how this had happened for the second time and wondered if she would be sent back again. She wondered if she were even real and alive to begin with.

“Milady…”

She almost bumped into Olvin as she walked out and the haze in her mind only let up when she looked into his bright blue eyes.

“I’m sorry… Your Majesty.”

“I thought you might’ve liked to see the room we provided for you.”

He led her to one of the towers farthest from the mountains. Her room with its shining lamp in the centre of the roof also had a small fire already roaring, new dresses and jewelry ready, and a window that faced the valleys below. Liln leaned over and could see the Desert in the distance, a shadow passing through the edge. She also had a feeling they were preparing something else for her, but decided not to dwell on it.

“What is that, Your Majesty? Over the Desert I mean... Is it some kind of cavern? I don’t remember it.” She turned to Olvin waiting in the doorway and he strode in, standing beside her to observe the shadow with a stony expression.

“That is the two-headed Giant Pire. He’s been terrorizing our people for years.” Liln took to heart the concern he had and the fact that he had included her in talking about caring for the nation he ruled. He had accepted her into the kingdom so quickly.

She gave his arm an affectionate squeeze and moved out of the window. “I must be here to help then.”

“You talk as if you plan on leaving.”

She glanced over her shoulder, a shudder of fear passing through her body. “I hope that isn’t the case.”

“I hope for the same.”

A spark coursed into the air between them, but then Liln remembered blacking out in freezing dark water, waking up in cool soft waves and being helped up on the beach.

“Your Majesty… I think… something may have happened to me in my world.”

“You’re safe with us now.”

“I never properly thanked you for helping me.” She took a small step forward.

Olvin broke the gap between them and took her arms, kissing her lightly on the lips. Liln deepened it only slightly, but they quickly parted when they heard footsteps and a guard appeared at the door. They barely turned, unable to tear their eyes away from one another, his cerulean like the ocean, her jade ones like the leaves of a birch tree.

“Lunch is served, sire." 

* * *

 


	4. Olvin's Truth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lady Liln discovers something she finds she had known all along.

* * *

Queen Iliana and Princess Fiona left for Cair Paravel a few days later with the promise to send soldiers to help fight Pire and a week passed in contentment, at least for the new Lady of the Castle. Lady Liln was a thing of urban legend. She walked through the halls being reminded of the histories she had learned before, but now another 187 years worth of facts.

She practiced her old archery and was rusty at first, but when she was startled awake by a great roaring in the Desert she quickly perfected it. If she were to go back to her old world eventually at least she could help defeat this Giant. The King told her he terrorized without any regard to asking for anything from the kingdom, that other Giants up in Ettinsmoor refused to associate with him… or help, for that matter.

“You told me about the time the Narnians helped them with that band of Black Dwarves in 250. What about bringing that up?”

Olvin chuckled softly, walking down the length of one of the halls with her, one with high ceilings and unlit torches on the walls. “They do not remember things the way we do. King Yorick presented this claim to them but was only met with confusion and outrage, thinking we wanted them to go against an abomination of their own people.”

But the roaring grew louder and harsher. Somehow this Giant, the one of the name Pire, found more creatures to hurt and just yelled out his hunger for more blood in the dead of night. At one point Liln bolted out of her soft bed, too startled to think straight, and grabbed a torch, running off through the tower until she found the guards posted somberly in front of King Olvin’s room. It didn’t take more than half a minute for him to call out to them to let her in.

Sleep was harder to come by for him. He sat at a wooden desk in a giant brick room, his canopied bed with the deep blue sheets in the corner unruffled. Liln, in a thick white scarf matching her nightgown approached him and realized in the small candlelight on his table that this wasn’t the first night he had been like this.

Beside the candle were odd ingredients and old books she had never seen in the library of the castle.

“I wish I could find just the right ting to save my people from danger.”

“Are you trying to find enchantments?”

Olvin rubbed a tired hand over his face, rubbing his eyes. “Do they not use enchantments where you’re from?”

“They did in the past. Far away in the past, that you can only read about it from ancient scholars. And sometimes in my time people tried to use enchantments to get what they wanted, but it never worked.”

With a small pause he said something next that warranted some thought, “I knew in my heart and soul that somehow we would be together.”

Liln was taken aback, Olvin continuing to stare blankly at one incantation on an old parchment. Yet for all the surprise at his sudden words she couldn’t pretend she hadn’t known the second he recognized her on the beach. He had gone from a concerned citizen to an excited and dazzled man while her hair dried from the ocean. To be acutely aware that you had missed your chance in being with the one you felt closest to, it could break anybody’s heart. She knew of men and women who had unhealthy obsessions with other people in their lives, but in this world it just sounded agonizing to read about a queen you were consistently drawn to in your Archenland and Narnian tales. In some odd way Liln understood and in doing so it made her love him back.

Then again… she loved him before any of this was confirmed to her in her heart. Maybe that was why she always felt a sinking feeling at the idea that she could leave again. It wasn’t just the land, it was him.

When she arrived all those years ago there were so many firsts she experienced: first taste of rich food, first archery lesson, first horseback riding. Lady Liln was so naturally in love with King Olvin that she was surprised it hadn’t come this easily before.

That night she pieced together what had happened to her before washing ashore on the beach… and she told him.

* * *

 


	5. Trauma

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lady Liln recalls when she had a different name and how her second trip to Narnia (most specifically Archenland) wasn't like the first.

* * *

The Lusitania was poised to be one of the biggest civilian Cunard liners that also carried ammunition and goods for the War effort. The British government was in charge of keeping passengers safe, but in 1915 as the Germans took submarines as a basis for fighting, warnings could not be heeded in time.

Lady Liln, still then going by Lilia and not feeling it in her heart that she was this person anymore, was living alone in Liverpool. After growing up as a queen for 40 years there was no discernable reason for her to marry whomever her family tried to force upon her. When she had made enough money by the end of 1909 she moved out and by 1910 was living in England.

She thought perhaps the accent, so similar to that of Narnians and Archenlanders, would make her feel better about what she lost. She needed the reminder that what she heard all those days was real, and when it started to hurt inside her core it was too late because she had already found a lodging house with a number of other women alongside odd jobs here and there. They found out that she could write in small doses, but she liked the long hours in restaurants and cleaning homes.

It kept her mind busy during the day, because at night she consistently dreamt about King Col and her children and her grandchildren. A part of her wanted to forget and was afraid to sleep, but time carried on as agonizingly slow as it did in Archenland (or so it seems). She felt she was living a nightmare every day, never able to find her way back to the life she knew belonged to her.

She started work as a maid in the Adelphi Hotel when it first opened in 1914 when a friend offered her a small writing job in New York. By then almost all the women at the lodging house had gotten themselves married, whispering how they felt so bad for “miss Lilia”, how she would never find love. Early in 1915 her family left a message for her to deal with the small estate in Ireland they still couldn’t be bothered to check on themselves.

No questions about how she was doing. Just a letter telling her what to do.

Since the job would be available by June she decided to go and take the Lusitania back to New York in May. The house was small and destitute and the only thing of value she could find was an old wooden box that couldn’t be opened.

On her way to Old Head of Kinsale her friend mentioned that the writing job was with a newspaper that had expanded from Toronto a few years ago, owned by a Gregory Marsden.

Now… Lilia had changed her name in Liverpool to Lila Isadora. It’s perfectly understandable that this friend never knew her real last name and hadn’t meant to put her in an awkward position. Either way, the job was already set. When they arrived in New York she was to meet with Gregory Marsden and his top associate Alfred Wentworth.

Before setting foot on the steamer, Lilia, known as Lila Isadora, dreaded the day she would have to get off.

At approximately 8 o’clock in the morning, with an old and sad sun over the murky water blazing languidly through a thick fog, the captain of the ship woke most of the guests with a foghorn. Unable to sleep again she finally managed to open the box found in the home in Ireland. It only held a small necklace with a butterfly at its chain. It was nothing special, the emerald at the centre dull.

She hadn’t even put it on when a torpedo struck the boat just past 2 o’clock in the afternoon.

She remembered running with groups of people in the second class cabin, then being plunged into darkness. The water hit her like thousands of freezing knives. Stifled by the other passengers around her, the sunlight crept in through the cracks of the boat and she numbly swam away from what she was sure were dying bodies.

Then the water and the sun started to warm up. She somehow had swum very far away from the wreckage of the ship and the bodies and was finally greeted with sweet air, sweeter than anything in Liverpool or Toronto or Ireland, but familiar. Like she had lived in the middle of this land before.

She couldn’t see civilization for miles and didn’t know which way to turn. Eventually after swimming for some time she could see the speck of high mountains in the distance, but she had become so tired that she had blacked out again. When she came to King Olvin had been standing over her, helping her onto the land that truly belonged to her heart and soul.

She would never use the name Lilia Marsden or Lila Isadora again.

* * *

 


	6. The Brevity Of Bliss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lady Liln is stricken with the lateness of her memories with King Col.

* * *

Lady Liln woke up hours later, but didn’t know what the time was exactly. Lying next to the King’s sleeping form, she was satisfied enough that they had found a way to get some respite, however brief their bliss might be. After Olvin had heard her story, although he couldn’t completely envision this other world just like she wouldn’t have been able to before her first journey in 1909, he saw the utter fear and sadness in her trembling hands and wanted to show her that he could make her feel better in a way only a King and lover could. 

He had succeeded a few hours earlier and then again another hour afterwards (if young minds inquire as to what this means then the two merely kept one another company) and now the castle and the night was still. Liln forgot about her old name and old life and wrapped herself in the blanket before she walked softly to the seat next to the window.

The stars had come out, bright and beautiful in a moonless sky. She smiled to herself, eagerly searching for the ones she knew would tell her the old stories. She searched and searched until her eyes ached and she couldn’t in fact find their locations.

“Milady…”

Tears had come to her eyes. Something had shaken Liln to her core. She glanced over her shoulder quickly before Olvin sat next to her.

“Where are the Stars?”

He smiled through his own sleepy eyes, still watching her dreamily. As if she were just meeting him for the first time.

“My love, they are all around you.” His gaze shifted to a tender seriousness when he saw that she was crying.

“But what about Coriakin and Ramandu watching over?”

“I’ve heard of those past Stars. A battle was waged between them and it is said that Aslan left them somewhere in his land to carry out sentences too complex for any mortal soul to understand.”

Liln abruptly stood and changed back into her nightgown and Olvin followed after her, confused.

“Lady Liln…”

“No… I was here when those stars were still in the sky. I was here when Col was telling me the stories about them. And now they’re gone.” She took her torch and lit it again, for it had blown out during the night.

“I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

“Why was I brought here if I’m going to forget the value of the first time? I was so happy to be back I’d…” She sniffed and in a small quivering voice, her back to Olvin asked, “Did I even love him?”

She left the King standing there in his room, and the ardor inside him died. Now he truly knew loneliness.

* * *

 


	7. Lady Liln's Proposal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The proposal told in varying stories by the bards, but this is the truth.

* * *

Lady Liln watched from her tower as the valleys below went from green to white, as Winter settled upon the land. In the courtyard she bundled up in her red and purple robes and walked alone, staring up at the mountains behind, never having been able to see straight to the top.

The whole court immediately noticed the shift in mood of the castle. The King spoke minimally to his lords and delved harder into his plans on attacking Pire. It became particularly obvious when he and his Lady had stopped traveling around the castle together, walking through the halls and simply enjoying each others’ company. It was something one simply did not see until it was gone.

Liln spent days practicing her archery but the memories of Col still persisted. She wondered why they hadn’t come to her earlier in her arrival to Archenland and it only made her feel worse.

Had she not loved her husband and children and grandchildren? She remembered the fear and anguish in not wanting to marry him, believing love at first sight was the only true kind until Aslan taught her otherwise. She had grown to love Col and believed it was as true as any, but then why did it hurt to think about Olvin? Why hadn’t she felt an instant connection and warm glow with the first man as she did for the second?

She expected another visit from the Great Lion, but found that this was something she would have to solve herself. She knew the King’s marriage had been a long-growing concern amongst the royalty of Anvard. Liln wondered if they cared more about that than defeating the Giant.

And finally she came up with a new idea. She thought perhaps Aslan had indeed enchanted her to have it, but nonetheless it had to be shared.

Fifty Narnian soldiers arrived with their general, a dark Centaur named Tysten. All of them were tall and familiar with battle, ready to fight for the people of Archenland as instructed. When Lady Liln sat in the long throne room with its gallant torches blazing and the rest of the court surrounding her, the second thing she noticed was how young most of these warriors were. The first was Olvin.

He had hardness in his eyes that hadn’t been there before and he continually stared straight ahead, sometimes up to the heavens when he spoke. Now was as best time as ever to articulate her idea in front of such a severe crowd.

When the soldiers were instructed to meet by the west of Anvard Pass to discuss strategy, the Lady Liln stood and all attention was on her. She felt small suddenly in this vast room, a girl from another world speaking to royalty she once knew before; her eyes stayed on the King before her, who sat in a golden chair while an empty silver one remained next to him. He didn’t flinch, the expression remained stony, but she knew it was also a broken one.

“Your Majesty… I have a proposition that will incite you to complete the task at hand.”

“Are my peoples’ safety not enough?”

“You have waited five years to ask for help. If I may be so bold, there must be one more thing that will help you succeed in defeating this Giant.”

There was a murmur in the crowd and Olvin almost smirked, “You talk out of hand, milady, but speak your suggestion.”

Liln felt warm all over, embarrassed but pushing through. “The downfall in Pire will result in you having the coveted hand of mine in marriage.”

That same murmur throughout the room increased in sound and she almost thought she had made a deadly choice; one that made her heart leap out of her chest. But then the King of Archenland grinned, the hardness started to tear away, and he nodded curtly.

“My dearest Lady. I eagerly take your proposal.”

* * *

 


	8. Broken Hearts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> King Olvin reveals his true feelings.

* * *

If he had thought she was frightened and soft-spoken when she had made her suggestion the idea dashed away days later when Narnian and Archenland soldiers were assembling. King Olvin was dressed in full regalia, armour in check, when Lady Liln burst her way into the war room. Her face was red and she had forgotten to address the procession properly.

“What is this I hear about me not joining the fight?”

He wasn’t very good at hiding his emotions from her, he knew this, but Olvin still met her with a perturbed and icy glance.

“You forget yourself milady—”

She ignored him and it reminded him why he wanted to marry her in the first place. Liln stepped up and around the table, meeting him with a fiery glare, as if he were the only person in the room. 

“Answer my question.”

“What value does a proposal like defeating the Giant and winning your hand in marriage have if you are there to help?”

“I didn’t make it so you could be alone.”

“I won’t be alone, I have my company.”

“I’m not staying behind. Why did I practice my archery if I can’t let you—”

“Lady Liln…” King Olvin finally turned fully towards her, his voice strong with a hint of anger in it. “Do not argue with me. You are not permitted to come along.”

He wanted to say more but knew better than to express too much of his feelings. At any rate a large part of him knew it would come out sooner rather than later. The King left her to watch the men and women from two different lands, all strong and courteous and ready to take charge, form different lines near Anvard Pass.

Of course, being an honourable and just king, like the ones before him, Olvin sat in front, leading the procession. They all made their way down the hills and through the sparse trees until the castle was but a speck in the distance. When night started to fall they turned a bend down a few rocky slopes and passed a number of trees. He tried not to recognize the tall oak ones he had slept under months ago but his thought-process was thwarted when the great Centaur Tysten approached him, the King long having been riding still on Dolris, and bent low to whisper.

“A few of your men have sighted Lady Liln following close behind.”

Olvin barely moved his head. “Are you certain?”

“She keeps a steady distance but her scent is unmistakable.”

Olvin called to one of his guards, dressed in very similar armour, and advised him to take the reigns on Dolris and continue guiding the horse onwards as he the King dealt with his Lady.

She had only been a few feet from the very back of the animals, but had obviously forgotten these were moles that could sniff out anybody. He surprised her near the same oak trees as before and wondered if she had remembered them fondly the way he had, grabbing her around the waist with one hand and covering her mouth, making her unable to shout. She struggled to do so under his grip, make no mistake, but King Olvin was much too strong and he only let go when the army had disappeared around a bend.

She whirled around in her dark green cloak, the hood having fallen off, and he saw that red angry temper again, the black curls barely pinned back. 

“How dare you?”

“You disobey the direct orders of your King and ask how dare _I_?” Olvin stepped up to her, renewed energy flowing through his veins. “What do you mean to accomplish? Do you consider me such an inept ruler and fighter that you feel the need to turn back on your own word at a moment’s notice?”

Breathing heavily Liln tried to reply, “I never made that proposal to embarrass you. Excuse me for assuming I would be joining my future husband in helping accomplish such a _daring_ feat. Do you really think of me as a weak woman—”

“There are women _in_ my army. But _you_ are not a soldier.”

“I thought this was a free land?” She stopped, flustered. “Are you angry with me?”

“Yes, for disobeying my orders.” Olvin stepped up again, putting on a menacing air. “And you will not do it again. Take your leave back to the castle and the discussion can end here.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

He knew. His whole life was spent deflecting attempts at decisions over his own life but now was a first for even an Archenlander. It was a first because he absolutely lost any composure, cracking before her.

“You go on to presume that if we had continued our nights together I would still allow you to join in on this fight?”

“Of course not—”

“That I may have if we hadn’t done so to begin with.”

“Olvin—”

“ _King_.” He shouted through the still night air and Liln jumped, but didn't drop her gaze. “I am your _King_. And I love you,” His voice cracked at those words before he continued, “but I know you value _your_ love for someone else more than you do for any that you could've had towards me. Return to the castle at once if you do not care to break my heart by getting hurt.”

Liln stood alone under the trees and heard the army disappear in the distance with their King. She shook, cold all over, and the Winter night carried on undaunted.

* * *

 


	9. Aslan Mends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The distant battle against Pire wages onwards as the Lady Liln comes to terms with her feelings for the King.

* * *

She took a wrong turn because her thoughts had muddled from the conversation, stepping over the wrong ridge and accidentally pushing through a valley towards the glistening sea of the Eastern Ocean.

Liln stopped and caught her breath when she noticed the moon shine over the water. The wind whipped bitingly cold around her, loosening her already tangled hair from its pin. She watched as the waves crashed harshly on the rough sand and backed away, suddenly overcome with terror. Tripping, she stumbled to her knees and remained there, her heart pounding too vigorously in her chest. She could feel hot tears on her cheeks, freezing in an instant.

“Please don’t send me back," She whispered, but then she shouted it in an anguished sob. “Please! I have no life there!”

Did she truly value one love over the other? She had been so afraid of wasting away the memory of her first husband that she had overlooked the feelings of her second. A slower progression to love should not have seemed more valuable to her than the instant she felt it with Olvin. In fact, she should have been grateful that her old life with Col had helped her recognize it so quickly.

In the barest of truths, he was in her past for a reason and the yearning and ache she felt in her whole body for Olvin was unquestionably and agonizingly real. It was as real as the trauma she felt when the Lusitania was struck by a torpedo, and as real as the sadness over losing the first family she had created in this world.

She let out one more anguished sob, but her heart was soaring. Wiping her eyes, Liln stood and was met with the face of a Great Lion. Aslan bowed his head and she curtsied back, slowly, revitalized already. The wind was suddenly not so strong anymore. 

With that, the Lion let out a roar that shook the world to its core. Another one followed after, but from afar, gross and guttural. It had kept the people of Archenland up too many nights, but it would be the final roar of the beast.

Lady Liln strode through the hilly ridges and valleys back towards her castle as the morning light started to come over the mountains. She hadn’t marked a trail, but with Aslan’s blessing and the frozen tears on her cheeks she felt she still knew where she was going. Remember, she had walked these paths many years before.

Once she reached Anvard Pass she stopped and stared south towards the Desert. She could swear there was a new mountain where the cavern once was, jagged and spiky with two heads sloping upwards.

* * *

 


	10. A Lady's Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lady Liln and King Olvin make things right.

* * *

The kingdom waited what felt like many days for the company to return. Almost a week later Lady Liln was bedridden from an unknown illness, although she had an inkling what it was but didn’t plan on worrying any of the lords and royals for now, before the horns were blasted and the army was welcome.

Because there were days when she could barely get out of bed, some say from heartbreak, Liln was left to stay in it even when Olvin came back. The King had fought well, only losing two men, none of them Narnians, and word traveled up to her that he had struck a final blow and placed an enchantment on the Giant. Pire was now that mountain that had appeared and some would call it Mt Pire, but others called it Mt Olvin.

When Liln discovered he had injured himself fatally, having wanted to protect the people that were there to help him fight to begin with, she was instantly fed-up with hearing things second-hand and forgot her illness.

She rushed through the bright and now lively corridors and was baffled when they stopped her at the King’s doors. “He’s not in his chambers... Your Majesty.”

He surprised her once again as she walked through the orchard with the cherry trees, leaves gone from the Winter, her shoulders slumped. King Olvin was pale and one of his blue eyes was covered with bandages circling round his head. His wrist was wrapped up and Liln later discovered he had a number of deep cuts and scratches on his back. But when he smiled and offered her a seat on a bench her sadness disappeared.

For a time they merely enjoyed one another's silent company (and this time this is not a way around words to shield younger readers), taking in the freshness of Archenland's mountain air. The grass was starting to pop up through the melting snow and Olvin held the first tulip of the season in his hand thoughtfully before he brushed Liln's soft hair aside and placed it behind her ear with his uninjured hand.

He then told her of the battle first-hand and it felt like they were traveling through the halls having conversations about anything and everything they could think of. He spoke so easily, like he hadn’t almost lost his life. Such a nonchalant King, just as he was before.

“More than half the army saw me perform the enchantment. That’ll be the last of the disrespect I ever get again from the royals.” He chuckled.

Liln held his uninjured hand and breathed in longingly. His scent was still that of the books from the library. Even after fighting a battle in the Desert. 

“I’m sorry that I hurt you so deeply before. I was confused and I needed some time to think, but it’s no excuse.”

“As the man you decide to be with… I should learn to understand the kind of changes you feel.”

“Aslan met me at the Ocean. I don’t want to be afraid to lose you and go back to a life I hate, but now I know the fear was unwarranted.” She looked up with a mixture of softness and ferocity at Olvin that he couldn’t dare himself to ever look away. “You are my life now. Believe me when I say that my value for you is above all else. I love you too. With all my heart.”

Without breaking his gaze, he bent down in front of her in the beautiful courtyard of Anvard, both of them radiant under the sun of a burgeoning Spring, and asked her with conviction,

“My fine Lady Liln, great noblewoman of Archenland, will you do me the honour of becoming my wife and Queen?”

* * *

 


	11. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And things do not end as sad and bittersweet as before.

* * *

He wanted a secret wedding near the Ocean but she put her foot down and told him it had to happen publicly as soon as possible because she could tell she was already carrying his baby. The long and magnificent stone halls of Anvard rang with the bells and cheers of as many Archenland nobles and civilians they could fit. The main city held a celebration and there were feasts and dances that lasted for weeks on end.

Queen Liln explored the regions again and flourished with her archery, but found a new passion in dancing. She became known as the liveliest royal in parties and get-togethers and always had her more modest husband joining her in some way. She didn’t like swimming very often in the sea and when prodded hard enough only managed to put her feet in the shore for brief moments.

She lived a long life once more, raising her children and grandchildren with her love. This time it lasted until her death years and years later, for she was not needed back in her old world again. The trepidation of losing her home was also a thing of the past. She reminisced about her old lives like memories from a dream, but never dwelled on them with sadness.

And Queen Liln, once Queen Lilia, once Lila Isadora, once Lilia Marsden, lived happily ever after with her husband King Olvin of Archenland.

* * *

 


End file.
